Moveable Feasts.docVIP

Moveable Feasts 　　WHETHER you are nostalgicfor your own culture orkeen to experience another,food, it seems, is the sen-sual conduit to the comforts of home orto irresistible adventures abroad. TwoBeijing-based culinary entrepreneurs areremarkable just for their longevity in theart of providing taste bud tours. Restau-rants come and restaurants go in China,so expats know not to get too attached toa place because this time next year it mayhave vanished. An estimated 150 to 200new restaurants open in Beijing aloneevery year, and only half survive, so theyknow what theyre doing. 　　Canadian Paul Astephen has man-aged to ride out all cuisine fashions withhis American Steak and Eggs diner inthe south embassy district, by bringinga little bit of home into the lives of thoseso far away from theirs. The Hutong, acultural education business, does thereverse. They train anyone enamored offoreign cuisines how to prepare thosedishes properly in their own do-miciles. Both culinary adventur-ers and the occasionally home-sick are eating well in Beijing. 　　Astenhen appears to be a nat-ural, a real foodie but without the preten-sion. In a city that offers every cuisine inthe world, the hunger for home cookingis an obsession that inspires innumerablerestaurant reviews in the lifestyle maga-zines of the capital. Essentially this RedStar chef succeeds because he under-stands his Western compatriots are on aperpetual urban safari-stalking the bestburger, pizza or cheesecake in the city.Customers haunt every new joint witha Western chef or try native attemptsat Western dishes in the hope they willdiscern what only their taste buds canconfirm or deny-a mastery of the foodsthey were raised on. 　　By contrast, Chinese people eat withtheir eyes, Astephen ventures, explain-ing, Chinese baked goods are gor-geous looking but dry; the pies stand upstraight, but to me a pie should leak alittle. Astephen, now 63, came to Beijingon a visit with his better half, ChineseCanadian Yang Yang in 2o